Sunday, March 4, 2012

Gingerly, I approach

Ginger came in the mail yesterday. Along with a few friends- Galangal and Turmeric. Pretty hyped to try these out this year. They grow real similarly, so you can pretty much handle them the same. New things can so often be quite exciting, and If I'm not mistaken (I so rarely am) turmeric is one of those foods the NYTimes is always trying to make you eat because it has some magical powers. Galangal is pretty much the shizznit too, its like a spicier white ginger, most common in Thai food, and alot of times the base of green curry paste. So get ready for that. If you need to start saving money so that I can have your money than please plan accordingly. These crazy looking sea creature tentacle looking root things show up the first week of March. They immediately go into a presprouting phase on heat mats that we made. I start them in open cell greenhouse trays, cover with soil and put them directly on my little heat cable mats. It holds them between 70 and 80 F. Too much more then that and you'll anger the ginger spirits. But lower temps keep it from going all crazy. The point is to keep it warm for a few weeks, to get the sprouting on. Then it will get transferred to grow bags, still kept warm, but given a little room to stretch them legs as it were. As it grows it gets hilled like a potato, a little grow a little dirt reward repeat. From there hopefully it sends up enough stem to create a canopy to shade itself. It prefers around 80% if you can get it. If your lucky things continue on like this for several months, and then around middle September you get to start breaking into the stash. You'll know its time because the grow bags start to look like the Incredible Hulk's pants. Except black not purple. At that point you can start picking that fresh baby ginger. Selling it to everyone, making ginger beer, and candying that shit. Prepare yourselves for the gingersplosion. wait that's not a word. Word

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lilfarm is in the piedmont of North Carolina...we grow food...we sell it...we have two weekly markets and a CSA...lots of acres 1 busted tractor 2 dogs 300 chickens, and an amazing goal of one day turning a profit.